Friday, January 25, 2013

Pre-Game Skate: Gm 4 @ DET

by NiNY

Wild
If the Wild is to make the playoffs, it needs to be able to avoid point-less streaks. Tonight is their first chance to do that.

The first step would be finding some secondary scoring (tertiary scoring would be okay, too). Bouchard and Granlund each have one, the other four goals the team has produced have been from the top line (Heatley's three and Parise's one). That distribution in and of itself (66% from the top line) isn't death. It's the dearth of goals overall (6 in three games) that's mildly distressing. The idea after the Nashville game was that a couple days of actual practice might be beneficial towards that goal. Let's hope so.

Brodin's arrival at the NHL is another sign that the youth movement that Fletcher embarked on is set to start paying dividends. I am very excited to see Brodin play, if only to see this marvelous skating ability that the people rave about. But, it's tough to rely on 19-year old defensemen in the NHL. While not without exceptions, theirs is not a track record full of postive surprises. So, it's great that we have the kids on the cusp of the show. But that just reinforces that the ceiling for this time is still probably just making the playoffs, instead of being an actual contender.

Harding back in net tonight, by accounts. I'm interested to see if Yeo intends on truly working a rotation.

Red Wings

In many ways, the Red Wings are the photo negative of the Wild right now.

The Wild is 2-1, the Wings are 1-2.

The Wild is brimming with youth, the Wings are old and decrepit.

The Wild is good, the Red Wings are evil.

Okay, that last one might be a bit of a reach.

How about: the Wild, knock wood, is healthy, the Wings are not.

Darren Helm, Jakub Kindl, Ian White, Colaiacovo, Ericsson and Bertuzzi are all either out or questionable.

I haven't watched any Red Wings action yet, so I can't comment on their play. But I will say that this team is due for a down year. And, if this is it, so much the better for the playoff chances of a team like the Wild.

POI

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Nick in New York (NiNY) is just a guy with a computer and a love of hockey. And a wife and two daughters whom he adores. And a decreasing ability to metabolize beer in a way that doesn't, er, add to the bottom line, as it were.

Feel free to toss him an email with any thoughts on the blog, or the sport.

Mason...you don't really want to mess with Mason. He's nasty with the writing skillz. And can drop some ridic culture pulls into his narrative. Lover of haiku.

Mason can be reached at: jaredmas@gmail.com

Did you know that no two zebras' stripes are the same? Well we have a zebra here at HTP, and his name is Doubles. Only he's a hockey zebra - and he's here going to share his great wealth of hockey knowledge from an on-ice official's standpoint with you. Feel free to read him in Chris Rock's voice.